Pressure group nails benefits staff gaffe

The Department for Work and Pensions has agreed to remind
benefits managers of the rules governing attendance allowance.

The move came after care home pressure group NHFA claimed that
hundreds of older nursing home residents were being wrongly denied
almost £60 a week.

NHFA said it had received several calls from relatives of care
home residents who were being refused attendance allowance by
benefits staff despite being eligible.

Any pensioner whose care is neither part-funded by councils nor
fully paid for by the NHS under the continuing care system is
eligible for the allowance. The registered nursing care
contribution, which was introduced under the Health and Social Care
Act 2001 and covers the nursing care element of a place only, has
no impact on attendance allowance eligibility.

However, according to NHFA, people in receipt of the registered
nursing care contribution are being wrongly denied the benefit.

Director Philip Spiers said: “It’s [down to] a lack of training
of benefits staff. There must be hundreds of people who are having
their attendance allowance withdrawn.”

Attendance allowance is worth £58.80 a week to older people
needing day and night care, and £39.95 to those requiring
either one or the other.

Age Concern care policy officer Pauline Thompson said NHFA’s
findings were “seriously worrying”.
She added: “When the nursing payments came in, the law was changed
and made quite clear. And the guidance, which benefit staff should
be using, makes it quite clear that you can get attendance
allowance if you’re receiving the nursing payments.”

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